Murray: What I’ll bring as the new Houston Astros site expert

After two years at The Athletic, it’s time to start my next chapter as a national columnist at FanSided and site expert at Climbing Tal’s Hill.

When I created a Twitter account aggregating baseball news in July 2012, I never imagined it would be the start of a career. I thought it would be a fun hobby.

The itch to turn journalism into a career began when I broke my first story: Boof Bonser signing a minor-league deal with the Indians. Weeks later, I reported Billy Butler signed a three-year, $30 million deal with the Athletics. The next day, I was on MLB Network being interviewed by Ken Rosenthal, Matt Vasgersian and Harold Reynolds on how I broke the news. I was 18 at the time. I hung up the phone after the interview, called my parents and said, “This is what I want to do for a living.”

I never envisioned being mentored by two of the top insiders in baseball, Jon Heyman and Ken Rosenthal, at separate stints at FanRag Sports and The Athletic. I didn’t envision building a strong network of sources that allow me to break news and try to compete with my mentors. I certainly didn’t expect it to happen by the time I was 24. But I’ve been incredibly fortunate to meet some great people in this industry who have helped turn my dreams into reality.

After leaving The Athletic, I took my time finding a new place to write. I wanted to be somewhere that would maximize my strengths and help me grow as a journalist. It’s why I’ve decided to join FanSided as a weekly national columnist, as well as the site experts for Climbing Tal’s Hill and Redbird Rants.

The national column will post every Friday on the main FanSided page. It’ll be a collection of opinions, what I’m hearing from sources and the occasional profile. My mission as a site expert is to use what Rosenthal, Heyman and so many others have taught me to create the most informed, unique content on the Astros.

My job is exponentially easier knowing we have such a talented staff in place. I have already begun working with the team on how we can formulate a plan to maximize everyone’s strengths. There will be features, analysis and up-to-the-minute rumors, among many other things. The goal is to eventually turn this into the No. 1 place for Astros coverage. That mission starts now.

I want to thank readers, old and new, for coming along for the ride. I couldn’t be more excited to be part of the FanSided team.